Kansas Coach Lance Leipold Addresses Wisconsin Rumors, Makes Bold Claim About His Future

Kansas football coach Lance Leipold is doing his best to convince fans he's not going anywhere.

Leipold is believed by many to be one of the top targets for the Wisconsin Badgers after Paul Chryst was fired. His name has also been constantly floated for the Nebraska job.

The Kansas coach, who is a Wisconsin native, finally broke his silence on the firing of Chryst, and it sounds like he thinks it's a bit of an unfortunate situation.

Will Lance Leipold leave Kansas? (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

"Paul Chryst is a friend. I've known Paul since probably high school. His late father tried to recruit me. It's a good family, good man and it's just unfortunate that guys who average nine wins a year get let go. But it's part of, I guess, what we've signed up for now these days and it's a changing world in a lot of different ways. And that's unfortunate. It's unfortunate for the locker rooms, and I think we lose that as well. There are a lot of components and I'm not questioning anyone's decision, because there are a lot of factors that go into these that none of us really know. But that's me as a person and a fan, not as a coach," Leipold told the press Tuesday when discussing the opening in Madison, according to 247Sports.

Lance Leipold draws major coaching interest. Nebraska and Wisconsin are reportedly interested. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

Lance Leipold is doing his best to convince Kansas fans he's not going anywhere.

Leipold also wants Kansas fans to believe he's not leaving Lawrence after just two seasons, despite the national interest in him.

"It was a quick mention and anything after that is, to me, wasted time with our team because we're focused on this, I'm focused on this, we're extremely happy here we have no plans of going anywhere," Leipold said when addressing whether or not he's talked to the Jayhawks about all the speculation swirling around him.

Will Wisconsin hire Lance Leipold? Will Nebraska target him? (Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images)

While Leipold might want Kansas fans to remain calm and believe he's not going anywhere, he's quickly become one of the top coaching targets in America.

With Kansas 5-0 and having the program's best season in 13 years, it's easy to understand why power programs are interested. The Jayhawks are on fire thanks to his coaching.

The Jayhawks will struggle to keep Leipold.

If you can win at Kansas, you can win anywhere. The problem for the Jayhawks is no matter what Kansas offers Leipold, bigger schools can offer more. Nebraska and Wisconsin both have much deeper pockets and the ability to recruit at a much higher level.

Will Lance Leipold remain at Kansas? Time will tell, but fans of the Jayhawks shouldn't get too comfortable. It's going to be very hard for him to say no to all the money that is going to be thrown his way. After all, this is America. People like money.

Lance Leipold claims he's happy at Kansas. Will he leave the Jayhawks? (Photo by Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)

Whether it's Nebraska, Wisconsin or somewhere else, Lance Leipold is going to get some huge offers to leave Lawrence. No matter what he says right now changes that fact.